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2016-11-13

Election Prayer

Liberal Entitlement, part 1

I went to pray on Tuesday morning.
I went to join the people, my neighbors, at the precinct to worship together.
The electoral priest gave me a paper ballot wafer.This is my body politic.
And handed me a pen – a small container of ink.This is my blood.
I offered up my prayer, expressed the yearning of my heart.
As prayer does, it connected me to -- made me a part of -- something much bigger than myself.
Within a day, the Goddess answered my prayer, and the answer was:

"No. You’re not ready yet for that. I know you thought you were -- but you have more work to do – you and your neighbors -- more lessons to learn, more bridges to build. More compassion to share. You must love more widely and more fiercely and organize more energetically and more effectively."

I come to pray on this Sunday morning.
I come to join my people at our congregation to worship together:
To share our prayer -- express the yearning of our hearts.

May we be made ready. May we find the strength and resolve to do the work, learn the lessons, and build the bridges. We ask for the courage to love more fiercely, brightly, and constantly than we ever have before -- and for the energy to organize the effective forms of public love, which is justice.

1. Openness to New Truth. "Religious liberalism depends first on the principle that revelation is continuous. Meaning has not been finally captured. Nothing is complete, and thus nothing is exempt from criticism." Our religious tradition is a living tradition because we are always learning.

2. Freedom. "All relations between persons ought ideally to rest on mutual, free consent and not on coercion." We freely choose congregational relationship and spiritual practice. We deny infallibility and resist hierarchical authority.

3. Justice. We are morally obligated to direct our "effort toward the establishment of a just and loving community. It is this which makes the role of the prophet central and indispensable in liberalism."

4. Institution Building. Religious liberals "deny the immaculate conception of virtue and affirm the necessity of social incarnation....Justice is an exercise of just and lawful institutional power." Institution building involves the messiness of claiming our power amid conflicting perspectives and needs, rather than the purity of ahistorical, decontextualized ideals.

5. Hope. "The resources (divine and human) that are available for the achievement of meaningful change justify an attitude of ultimate optimism."(For Adams's full text, see HERE. For Liberal Faith, see HERE.)